This entry was posted by Nick Reisman on November 9, 2012 at 6:06 pm, and is filed under Uncategorized. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

gecannonphd

(CIA Director David Patreus becomes the latest man in public life to think with a body part other than his brain.)

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Actually, the body part of which you refer is guided by the brain…one doesn’t work w/o the other.

Gen. (Dr.) Patreus is one of the military’s golden boys.

He has given long, and in most cases, distinquished service to our country.

I’m a conservative in the sense that the US should not be involved in nation-building.

Ergo, I’ve always been opposed to our ground troops, and nation-building, in Iraq and Afghan.

Gen. Patreus wrote the military hand-book on pacification and nation-building.

But as former Defense chief, Dr. Robert Gates, said “Anyone who favors putting ground troops in a Muslim country in the future should have his/her head examined.”

From the reports coming out, it appears that Patreus had the affair with a lady who was writing a bio. of the General.

Patreus, in short, apparently used a body part to seduce an admirer of him; and likely to guarantee that the bio. would be favorable.

But the FBI entered the picture when reports came out that Patreus’s computer had been hacked; and compromised.

Being CIA director, Patreus could have been compromised and open to blackmail.

The CIA may be good in gathering intelligence and making analytical reports.

But perhaps JFK’s desire to splinter the CIA into a 1000 pieces should be on the POTUS’s agenda.

gecannonphd

“At the federal level, Sen. Chuck Schumer is optimistic there’s going to be deal on the fiscal cliff.

And because it’s Friday, here’s a tiger cub playing with a chihuahua.”

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And the POTUS and Veep will meet with Congressional leaders next Fri. to discuss the fiscal cliff.

Most of the fiscal cliff elements should have been dealt with early in 2012.

It’s expected that at this meeting Paul Ryan, still the House Budget Ct. chair will be there.

If he is, and is seated across from the POTUS, or Veep., is a “tiger cub playing with a chihuahua” the appropriate analogy (the POTUS being the tiger)?

Yesterday, Speaker Boehner said the meeting , and any fiscal cliff solution, should include “entitlement” reform…inc. Medicare and Social Security.

And Obama said that compromise is appropriate.

There is nothing to compromise on in the meeting regarding SS.

It should not be on the agenda on Fri., as SS is a separate trust fund and does not contribute to the debt or deficit.

What does Boehner, and his gang of GOP House radicals, want on SS.

They want to privitize it. That is what they want. You betcha.

And Barack should not compromise on this. SS is solvent until at least 2034. It can be made solvent for the next 75 years with a few tweaks…tweaks that can be outlined on the back of an envelope.

So hang tough Barack. And remember, you are the driver of the car heading toward the cliff.

gecannonphd

Sandy redux

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The reputable National Research Council has issued a new report on climate change (which is real) and how the changing climate poses a national and world security risk.

The report can be googled searched.

Gov. Cuomo’s favorability rating is bound to go down as the power,gas and other Sandy-related problems continue.

One of the most important issues related to climate change, Sandy and more severve storms in the future is whether to have a national goal of putting power lines underground…a program as extensive as Eisenhower’s national highway project in the 50ies.

A good exchange on this issue was in USAToday last July and can be found at google:
USA Today Editorial: To cut power outages, bury key electric lines

After all, if Cuomo IS the government (as he infamously told us) and the Long Island Power Authority (aka LIPA) IS a state entity, then Cuomo IS LIPA. Maybe he should try a little self-flagellation à la some medieval monks.

Like the NYS Thruway AUTHORITY that’s about to raise truck tolls 45% Upstate, Long Island Power AUTHORITY is yet another screwed-up quaisi-government entity created by NYS. For Cuomo to pretend that LIPA is something beyond his control is a tad disingenuous.

We all know that NYS has long had some of the highest electricity prices in the nation. ConEd and the power company du jour on Long Island are always the worst of the worst.

The story gets even better. The power company on LI used to be the Long Island Lighting Company (LILCO), a private entitiy. LILCO’s electricity prices were so high and LILCO was such an “eff up” that in 1998 the NYS Legislature and the governor (at the time) cut a deal with LILCO. NYS took over LILCO’s assets and created their own power entity called…LIPA. It was supposed to dramatically lower electricity prices on Long Island…which has never happened. So, LILCO became LIPA in 1998.

Guess who the Governor was at the time? Darn it, you guessed. It was Mario M. Cuomo. Guess who Cuomo the Elder APPOINTED to head LIPA? Richard M. Kessel, a pro at personally enriching himself and his friends at the state’s expense. Look him up in wikipedia.

Spitzer pried Kessel out of LIPA when he came into office. Unfortunately, the Spitz didn’t take much interest in the NYS Public Service Commission (PSC) and its oversight role in taming our high electricity prices. Maybe the Steamroller was too busy arranging “dates” with high prices prostitutes.

When that nitwit Paterson became governor (by default), he got rid of the head of a DIFFERENT power authority, the New York State Power Authority (NYPA) which is known formally as the Power Authority of New York State (PASNY). Guess who Dave installed as the head of NYPA over the protestations oeveryone in government and newspaper editorials saying “no…no…no…don’t do it!” Yup, he put Richie Kessel in charge of NYPA. When Andrew Cuomo (aka Cuomo the Younger) became governor he ejected Richie Kessel from his leadership position at NYPA. The Cuomos have come full circle on dealing with Kessel. Andrew undid what Mario started. Unfortunately, that still leaves us with LIPA…who definitely isn’t getting the job done on Long Island after Sandy.

BTW, here’s a fun quote from LILCO’s wikipedia entry illustrating the synchronicity that life often brings us:

“Hurricane Gloria hit Long Island on September 27, 1985, but power was not fully restored until October 8. The bitterness from the delays in restoring power helped bring down the Shoreham Plant and eventually helped force the sale of the company.”

And here we sit with LILCO’s replacement, LIPA, having the same damn problem after another hurricane (Sandy). The more things change, the more they remain the same. LOL.

(More later, maybe, on some wacky things that Andrew has said as he confronts the current power restoration debacle.)

BusterBrown

Correction: make that “high PRICED prostitutes.”

BusterBrown

[The Long Island Nine are calling on the feds to deal with the Katrina-like disaster on their hands.]

What a bunch of clowns. Apparently, the Long Island Nine have forgotten (or are ignoring the fact) that the government never DID do much to restore New Orleans to how it was before Katrina. There are still huge swaths of New Orleans with abandoned houses etc. Do some googling. Heck, it was the feds (i.e., the Army Corps of Engineers) lousy construction of New Orleans’ levees that allowed the city to go under water in the first place! Stop asking the feds to solve LI’s problems, Deano. YOU, the governor and the people of NYS need to solve the problem. You’re going to have to earn your pay, Dean. Put your thinking cap on, dude.

I recall Hurricane Andrew that decimated Homestead, Florida back in 1992.Wasn’t it Bush the Younger who had some nice photo-ops of symapthizing with the crying locals? Did Homestead ever get put back together again. I seem to recall some stories on the 10th anniversary of Andrew. Maybe things had improved (10 years will do that), but it never got back to where it was.

Andrew needs to tell downstaters the truth, just like he (bluntly) told us upstaters last year. Once the power gets fixed, you’re on your own. Private insurance will have to cover most of your losses. Your house damage is your problem. If you weren’t insured, you’re screwed.

The feds aren’t going to come galloping through LI and make everything magically look like it did before. Unless, a downed power line is in your way, you better get yourself a chainsaw and cut up your own fallen trees or hire a tree removal company (who no doubt have more business than they can handle). Then hire some people to help YOU repair your house. The power companies will NOT turn your power back on until a local housing inspector and licensed electrician say that it’s safe to do so.

Any money we get from the feds will mostly go towards the state’s costs of dealing with Sandy. BTW, Andy isn’t going to get that outrageously high number (50 billion?) that he’s saking the feds for, either. Get real.

If you need a helping hand, my fellow New Yorkers, you had better use the one at the end of your arm. You’ll drop dead waiting for the feds (and even NYS) to solve your problems. It’s sad but true.

BusterBrown

]The New York Power Authority will provide Niagara Falls with $13 million in funds upfront to help with the re-licensing of the Niagara Power Project.]

Ummmm. No. This money doesn’t HELP with re-licensing.The relicensing was completed long ago (2007). As an AP story states:

“The NYPA money was promised to Niagara Falls as part of the 2007
relicensing of the Niagara Power Project. But instead of doling it out
to the city over 44 years as planned, NYPA’s board of trustees agreed to
pay it in a lump sum.”

According to a new story yesterday, the Red Cross has raised $117m for Hurricane Sandy relief.

Does anyone know of family or friends in NY/NJ who have received more than a sandwich, a bottle of water and/or a cup of coffee from the Red Cross?

That’s all I ever saw the Red Cross provide when Upstate was decimated by Irene. A canteen truck went down my street twice a day. I didn’t need anything, but some neighbors enjoyed the free treats and the cheery volunteer driving the truck.

While visits from a canteen trucks are nice, the expense comes no where near the bazillions of dollars that people donated. This subject has come up before.

So I ask: what has the Red Cross done with the $117 so far? I would like to know. Actually, I would like to see them audited and indicted if they aren’t SPENDING the money to help folks. I refuse to donate to the Red Cross.

Perhaps someone should invite the Red Cross on TV to respond.

BusterBrown

Sandy struck on October 29th. Today (Sunday) is the 13th day
without power for some people.

I’m looking at the ConEd outage map. There are LOTS of pockets of 15, 25, 50 customers without power ALL OVER Brooklyn and Queens and further north into Mt. Kisco (uh oh) and Peekskill. ConEd says it will have them all repaired repaired by about midnight today. The LIPA outage map is far worse. LIPA makes ConEd look competent.

If you grew up in NYS, ask yourself how often the power went out (and worse yet, stayed out) before 1995 or so. That’s when Pataki took office. He (partially) deregulated the electric power market in NYS during his tenure. How do you think it’s working out?